Whisked Away
by Fading Butterfly Wings
Summary: Felicity was the sick girl. Claire was the lost one. Now they are both the missing ones. Continuation of One Summer Day. Mineral Town/Rune Factory crossover. On hold.
1. Chapter 1

**What's shakin' peeps? :D *cricket chirps* So anywho, this is the continuation to the fic One Summer Day I posted quite a while ago. I got enough positive feedback and encouragement on that piece to motivate me to keep writing, and so here it is, the unofficial sequel to my "smash-hit" oneshot. ;) If I were you and I had not yet read OSD, I would HIGHLY recommend you do so before continuing. Trust me, it'll save a LOT of confusion.**

**Well, that's all for now. Peace out, and enjoy reading!**

**P.S. Yes, this _is_ a crossover with Rune Factory, although you really don't have to be ultra-familiar with the characters in this story to get a feel of what's going on. So no worries if you've never played the game before. :)**

**(Below is a short tidbit from OSD to put you in the mood for what comes next ;) )**

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><p>Perhaps<em>, I thought sleepily as I slumped against the post I was tied to, <em>perhaps this entire horrific experience is merely an elaborate trick my mind is playing on me, and soon I'll wake up and find myself surrounded by the sultry summer air once again.

_I could only hope._

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><p>It didn't take long for me to realize that the predicament I found myself in was neither a joke nor a dream. I had been snatched from my bedroom late one winter night and dragged fighting almost every step of the way through a blizzard for miles until my kidnapper reached our intended location. Here I had been both gagged and blindfolded and then tied to a wooden post for good measure, and immediately after my kidnapper revealed his identity to me I had passed out from shock and exhaustion.<p>

I awoke what I assume to be a few hours later to find Zack gone and myself untied. Confused, I began wandering around, curious as to where I was. I soon discovered that I was being housed in an old abandoned barn. _How appropriate,_ I thought to myself sarcastically. _Kidnap a farmer and then bring her to the place she feels most at home. Brownie points for irony, Zack._

Of course, the next question on my list was _why_ Zack had kidnapped me in the first place. I could think of no legitimate reason. Jealousy of Cliff, perhaps? But I couldn't see Zack stooping to something as low as this over something as petty as that.

_Cliff._ The thought of him sent a pang through my heart. My fiance was a worrywart as it was; I couldn't imagine what thoughts would be running through his head when he discovered I was missing. I had to get home before the entire town was in an uproar searching for me.

Footsteps sounded above my head and I quickly turned to see Zack descending the ladder from the loft. I crossed my arms and tapped my foot in irritation.

"Okay Zack, so what's the deal?" I demanded as he approached me with narrowed eyebrows. "Why the heck am I here, and when can I go home?"

Despite the fact that he was almost two feet taller than me and carried about half his body weight in muscle, I had never found the guy intimidating. He once swore to me that he had never hurt anything bigger than a bumblebee in his life. Although my current circumstances found me seeing him in a slightly different light than before, he was still Zack the shipment guy in my eyes.

Instead of answering my question, he asked his own. "Are you hungry?" he grunted.

My mouth dropped open at this uncharacteristic rudeness, but I couldn't ignore the vibrations that had been rocking my insides for the past half hour. I tossed my long blonde hair over my shoulder indignantly. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

Zack grunted again, clearly annoyed with the preteen attitude I was giving him. It was then that I noticed the burlap sack he had slung over his shoulders. For a moment I toyed with the idea that maybe it was meant as a means of transport for me, but then I saw him reaching inside it and realized that it must be what he used to transport my food. Despite my anger, I couldn't deny the gratitude I felt towards him at that moment.

I reached my hand out greedily, hoping for a "magical" apple from Won's collection or perhaps some fresh honeycomb or even a bar of chocolate from Jeff's shop. To be honest, stale sandwiches almost sounded appetizing at the moment.

But instead of delivering my meal, Zack held out an empty palm inches from my face. "Ah, ah, ah. You have to put a blindfold on first."

My hand dropped to my side. Needless to say, this was an unexpected turn of events. _"What?"_

He shrugged apathetically. "That's my condition, take it or you don't eat. It's as simple as that."

I huffed impatiently. "Fine."

He handed me the blindfold and I hastily tied it around my eyes, my stomach groaning louder by the second. I opened my mouth eagerly and shut it again when I felt something gingerly placed on my tongue, only to have it filled with an unbearably bitter taste, almost like that of blood. I spat it out in disgust and rubbed its remains into the dusty floorboards. "What was _that_?"

Zack laughed, the cruelty of it unlike anything I had from him in the two years I had known him. "Your breakfast."

"Don't you have anything else?" I whined. I know it was a childish and probably stupid question, but even in my state of near starvation (or so it felt like), my taste buds weren't ready to accept just anything that touched down on them.

I reached up to remove the blindfold and felt my hand swatted away. I gasped and cradled my smarting fingers, surprised by this sudden show of violence from what I thought to be the gentlest man in the world. He then grabbed my wrist in a crushing grip and yanked me forward. His breath, smelling faintly of grape liquor, tickled my chin as he spoke in a low growl.

"You'll eat your breakfast and you'll like it," he said menacingly, his voice implying that his words were to be taken as an order, not a request.

Uncertain of what Zack would do if I dared to disobey him, I nodded fearfully and began cramming handfuls of the wretched food into my mouth as he gave them to me, noticing as I winced and chewed that the texture was almost like that of... grass.

The realization registered in my mind at the same time my eyelids began to waver. Forgetting Zack's previous command, I reached up and removed the blindfold in a daze just as my knees gave out beneath me and I fell to the floor in a slump. Cold laughter rang around me, and my only thought as I took note of the scarlet-colored leaves scattered about my head was _Dear Goddess, please don't let me die here._

_The day had started out like any other. Wake up at six, feed the cows, collect the day's honey, put the chickens in their coop. I had plans to meet Cliff at the inn later, but since I got work done early I decided to go for a stroll along the shoreline. I took my fishing rod along with me and sat down on the edge of the pier, my toes dangling above the water._

_Thinking that I heard someone call out my name, I turned and, shading my eyes, squinted into the distance. Was that Zack at the edge of the sand? I smiled and waved. He didn't seem to to see me, just stood there staring blankly ahead. I waved a little harder. When he didn't respond I attempted to call out his name, but found that I had no voice. What was going on?_

_I stood, clutching my throat and frowning. The fishing rod fell from my hand and landed in the water behind me with a splash. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I stomped my foot and shouted with all my might. _"ZACK!"

_My voice had miraculously returned, and he finally cocked his head in my direction. A smile spread across his leathery tan face and he raised his hand in greeting._

_I grinned back. But before I could invite him to fish with me a shadow suddenly loomed over me, and I turned to find the tallest wave I had ever seen in my life crashing down on top of me._

_The force knocked me back several feet and I lay sprawled out on the dock, every muscle in my body aching. Groaning, I pushed myself up and staggered into a standing position, only for a second wave to send me careening backwards again._

_I grabbed for the nearest pole and clung to it for dear life, spitting saltwater and seaweed from my mouth and shivering as an enormous gust of wind caught the bottom of my sundress and whipped it against my thighs._

_"Zack!" I cried, struggling to maintain my hold on the pole as waves continued to throw themselves at me with a determined vengeance. "Help me! Please!"_

_I waited for what seemed like ages, hugging the pole and praying to the Goddess that I wouldn't be swept away in the ocean's clutches. Just when I began to lose hope of being rescued, Zack's tall figure appeared out of the mist clouding my vision._

"_Zack!" I cried, tears of relief streaming down my face. "Thank Goddess you're here!" I stretched out my hand so it was within his reach. "Help me to shore!"_

_He took hold of my hand and squeezed my fingers with his own, indicating that it was safe for me to jump. I let go of the pole and lunged into his outstretched arms, then buried my face in his damp white beater. "Thank you Zack," I sobbed. "You saved my life."_

_His arms were wrapped around me protectively and he began running his fingers through my hair in an oddly comforting gesture. I peered through the space under his armpit to see that the waves were still mercilessly thrashing the pier, yet the sky was as calm and blue as before they had started. "What a weird storm," I mumbled. "We're not too far from the beach though. I think I can make it from here. Thanks, Zack."_

_I tried to pull away, but it was as though his arms were made of steel, preventing me from budging even an inch. "C'mon Zack, let me go," I protested, squirming in his grasp. "I'm fine now."_

_Zack unwound his arms from around my body, but before I could take a step towards the shore he grabbed me by the shoulders, rooting me firmly to the spot. I looked up at his face in annoyance, noticing with surprise that his eyes were apologetic. "Zack? What's wrong?"_

_He shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Claire. I had no choice."_

_Before I could ask what the Goddess he meant, Zack wrapped his arms around my calves and lifted me into the air before then tossing me over his shoulder. I screamed in terror and outrage and began pounding his back with my fists. "Zack! Put me down_, now_!"_

"_Sorry kid," he said again, and with a grunt he heaved and I suddenly found myself free falling through the air. My eyes widened with horror as a wave twice the size of the one I had seen earlier rose above me, its arms outstretched towards me and its mouth opened in a wide grin. The last thing I saw before being swallowed into the depths of the ocean was Zack standing on the dock, looking mournful yet strangely satisfied with himself at the same time._

_I opened my eyes and winced as liquid salt stung my pupils. I could see no more than five feet in front of me. My blurry surrounding was both beautiful and terrifying at once. Sea currents swirled all around my body, carrying with them unrecognizable creatures of the deep- some small, some almost twice my size. I watched in awe as a manatee-like creature swam by less than two feet away from me._

_Before long my lungs began to feel close to bursting, but when I took an involuntary gulp I was amazed to find that somehow I was able to breathe just as if I were on land. I began pumping my arms and legs, trying in vain to swim upwards, when a sudden movement caught my eye. I turned my head to see what looked like an underwater vine slinking towards me. It was joined by several others until I was surrounded by green. A feeling of dread formed in the pit of my stomach and I tried to swim away, but everywhere I went I was met with more vines._

_As I searched frantically for a means of escape I felt one of the vines curl around my wrist. Immediately I shook it off, but no sooner had it recoiled than another vine wrapped around my ankle, tightening until I was sure it had cut off circulation. The others became more bold and soon both of my wrists and ankles were bound with vines. One had even found its way across my mouth. I clamped my teeth down over it, hoping that it would recoil, only to find that my jaw was now stuck in that position and the vine had tied itself in a knot at the back of my neck._

_I shook my head and thrashed about wildly, but the harder I fought, the tighter the vines became. Despite my struggling they began pulling me through the murky water and soon I was faced with the pitch black entrance of a large cave._

_Instinct told me that whatever it was that inhabited that cave, it was something that I didn't want to meet. __Suddenly the vines began to unravel from around me and retreat to whence they came, and before long I was completely free. Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned to swim away from the cave just as a huge tentacle grabbed my waist from behind and pulled me into total darkness._

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><p><em>What a lovely day for a stroll,<em> I thought to myself as leaves that had fallen from the branches above crunched beneath my feet. I gazed in admiration at the wall of autumn-kissed trees that surrounded me on either side, standing proudly and rigidly as they stretched their arms toward the cloud-dotted sky. _If only Father or Neumann could have joined me._

I quickly realized what a foolish thought that had been. If I had asked either of the aforementioned men to accompany me on my journey... well, that's just the thing. They wouldn't have. Father would have locked me in my room and refused to let me out until I promised never to suggest such an absurd thing ever again. As for Neumann, I would have been stuck in his shop for hours, listening to a lecture on how the path beyond the village was no place for a woman (_even one escorted by a fine man such as myself_, he would add smugly). Trust me, I had learned this from experience.

I rolled my eyes. _You wouldn't say or do those things if it had been Mei who asked you, or Sharron, or Mist, or any girl in Kardia except me,_ I thought bitterly. Me, the mayor's daughter. Me, the sick girl. Me, the "fragile blossom that has to be groomed and watered and well protected from harm's way, for she has no mechanism of defense except for her beauty and quiet spirit, and even this can be used against her in the hands of moral-less scoundrels." You would be surprised at how deep Neumann can get after he's had a few bottles of brandy.

But Neumann's rare metaphors weren't the worst. I recited the speech in my head, the one Father had given me almost every day since birth and had memorized by heart by now, with a grimace on my face.

It began with an innocent question. _Why can't I leave the village, Father? All the other girls do it._

The reply was swift and stern. _You don't understand, dear one. You are not like other girls. You are a precious gift, and I can't bear to think of anything happening to you. You are forbidden to leave Kardia for as long as there is still danger beyond its border. Do you understand me, Felicity?_

The answer was always the same. _Yes, Father._

And for as long as I had lived I had been obedient to my father's command. Only once when I was nine years old had I been feisty enough to stray beyond the abandoned farm on the outskirts of town, and the week with no supper I had endured as punishment once my frantic father found me was enough to keep my curiosity at bay at least for a little while.

But my eighteenth birthday was celebrated on the fifth of fall, and the passionate longing for adventure that had withered away in me as a child had immediately flared up once my father proclaimed me an official adult. Despite the fact that I knew it was still considered unsafe to go beyond the border, the rebel in me couldn't resist the opportunity I was provided when my father was summoned to a neighboring village the next day to settle some sort of dispute and wasn't expected to return for three days at least.

And so I awoke at the crack of dawn the day after his departure, hardly daring to breathe as I made my way past the sleeping houses of my fellow townsfolk, and boldly set out on the path that led away from the village towards the Sech empire.

I knew fully well that the relationship between the Sechs and the Kardians had been on edge since I was young and mature enough to understand diplomacy, but I couldn't see how any harm could befall me on this beautiful path. Who would pin someone like me as a spy or as having the intention of putting an entire empire at risk? I was merely a teenager, practically still a child, innocently wandering about a path that just happened to lead straight to the home of my village's mortal enemies. What could happen?

Much, I soon discovered, much could happen to an innocent young girl, especially one that is wandering about an unfamiliar path without her father's permission.


	2. Chapter 2

**Well hey there readers (: Thanks so much for the reviews for the last chapter; I really hope this one doesn't disappoint! By the way, school starts for me the day after tomorrow, which means updates aren't going to be nearly as frequent as this one was. I'll do my best though!**

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><p>"Get up."<p>

The order came from one person, but it was as though it came from many sharp voices that were drowning out my thoughts and stomping on my brain. The words just wouldn't compute. _Get up...?_

I mumbled an incoherent reply and remained motionless. It was then that I realized that my cheek was pressed against something cold and hard. Why wasn't I in bed? _Is it time for me to let the chickens out yet?_

"You, girl. Get up. Now."

A sudden blow to my ribcage caused me to double over in pain. Tears sprang to my eyes as I struggled into a sitting position, the side of my abdomen throbbing with every movement. _What did I do wrong?_ I wanted to say, but I had no breath left within me to form the first word. Instead I panted and lifted my head to see a tower of a man standing above me.

My mouth gaped, and even under his harsh stare I couldn't help but drool a little, which could easily be blamed on the fact that I had awoken from what felt like a minor coma.

If the Goddess had to choose a husband, this man would certainly be a candidate. His eyes were a rich chocolate color and his silvery brown hair was swept across his forehead in the dreamy movie star style that left girls fawning. His muscle mass was somewhere on the scale between Zak and Kai- a perfect amount, if you ask me. I couldn't help but notice that his eyebrows were forked at the edge, which seemed a little strange even to someone who's accustomed to bizarre-looking foreigners (Won, for example). Other than that, he was absolutely perfect.

I cringed, mentally pinching myself. _You're engaged, Claire! Pull yourself together!_

The angel man answered my earlier unspoken question. "I said 'get up' twice, and you refused. The Sechs empire doesn't tolerate disobedience from its prisoners."

_Sechs empire? Prisoners? _"So... _you_ were the one that kicked me?" I said in utter disbelief. How could such a gorgeous man be capable of such brutality?

He nodded stiffly. "And if you're not on your feet within the next five seconds, I'll do much worse than kick you. Mark my words, I'm not a man you want to meddle with."

Not wanting to find out what "much worse" implied, I scrambled to my feet and immediately experienced a pounding sensation in my head like I had never felt before. I cried out in pain as I took a shaky step forward and discovered that my muscles felt like they had been wrung like lemons. It took all of my willpower not to collapse again. The man had that kicked me quickly reached out a hand to steady me, and I took it without hesitation, though I was confused at his seemingly sudden change of heart.

"What did you do to me?" I demanded as he placed his other hand on my back to keep me upright.

He grinned. "First of all, it wasn't me that did this to you. Second of all, you of all people should recognize the side effects of red grass."

His words hit my mind like a ton of bricks and sent me careening back into the past. At last the memories of my kidnapping came flooding back to me, the last one of myself on a barn floor surrounded by shreds of blood-colored grass. I gasped.

"I was _poisoned_!" I cried indignantly. Of all the dirty tricks to pull on a captive. Everyone in Mineral Town knew that one bite of the infamous red grass that grew around those parts was enough to sap a farmer of his strength for eighteen hours at minimum, meaning that the day's crops would most likely have gone to waste by the time he recovered enough energy to harvest them. How much of the stuff had _I _eaten? Or rather, I should say, Zack had _forced_ me to eat. I must have fallen into a deep, fatigue-induced sleep once all the grass digested, which hadn't taken long to happen. _Stupid Zack..._

"Wait a second, where _is_ Zack?" I suddenly cried. "He was the one that kidnapped me in the first place!"

The stranger chuckled and allowed me to continue to assault him with questions, which became increasingly absurd-sounding as I went on.

"Who the heck _are_ you, anyway? Are you one of Cliff's friends? Am I dreaming or something? Is this some sort of prank show? Are you going to take me back to my farm so I can feed my cows?"

The last question caused the man I was interrogating to double over in a hysterical fit of laughter that lasted for quite some time. I have to say, at the moment I was not the least bit amused by it.

I stood awkwardly for several minutes as the stranger continued to laugh at my expense. I briefly wondered if this unexpected diversion was a chance for me to escape, but I was unable to locate the nearest exit or weapon before the man reduced his laughter to a few occasional snorts and stood properly, shaking his head as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Phew," he sighed. "You really got me good there, Claire. Man, I didn't expect you to be so talkative. My brother was smart to knock you out before I came here."

I'm pretty sure he expected my mouth to drop open in shock, because he grinned when it did. "You're Zak's _brother_?" I exclaimed, disbelief apparent in my voice. _No wonder you're so ripped,_ I couldn't help thinking in my head.

He nodded. "Yeah, he owed me a favor from a few years back and I figured this was the perfect opportunity for him to repay me. Seemed pretty reluctant to do it, I think he might've had a thing for you, but the promise of money can bring out the dark side in anyone, even someone as lamb-like as my baby brother."

I'm not sure what horrified me more; the concept of Zack having a crush on me or the fact that he had agreed to something as awful as playing a part in a kidnapping for a few pieces of gold from his brother. _Well, he always was a pretty quiet guy that kept to himself most of the time, and his type are known for being up to no good. Plus, he was always complimenting me on my shipments and staring at me when I wasn't looking, which I found slightly creepy but at the same time strangely flattering..._

I snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a coarse pressure on my arms. Blinking, I looked down to see Zack's brother had begun binding my wrists together while I was lost in thought.

"Aw come on, are we really doing this _again_?" I groaned.

"Yup," he replied cheerfully. He secured the rope in a tight knot that hooked my thumbs together, then tied the remainder of the rope around a loop in his jeans, physically linking the two of us. "We're in a for a long journey, and I can't have you trying to escape along the way."

Before I could think of a good retort, he produced a faded red handkerchief from his pocket. I took a step backwards, knowing what was coming and hoping to dissuade him from doing it.

"That too?" I cried. "Seriously? Don't you think someone's going to suspect something when you walk by with a girl who is both tied to yourself and _gagged_? I mean, let's be logical here." I was desperate not to have to go through the ordeal I had with Zack again, and I thought I made a pretty valid point.

But the man responded to my plea with laughter as he fastened the hankie around my mouth. "My, you _are_ a talker, aren't you? It's a good thing I brought this along. And by the way, sweetheart, no need to worry about us being caught. The road we're traveling on will take us past nothing but mountains and valleys, miles from any civilization. Anyone we encounter will be in on our little secret." He winked, causing my anger to flare up in in place of annoyance. Who did this guy think he was talking to? "And once we get to the Sechs Empire, you won't have to fear the possibility of rescue, either. Sound good?"

I glared at him but said nothing, refusing to in-dignify myself any further by attempting to speak through the gag as I had with Zack. My mind, however, began to reel. What was the Sechs Empire, and why was I being taken to it? What did they plan on doing with me there? Why couldn't I just go home to Cliff and be safe and happy and alright again?

The worst part about having my hands tied together was that I couldn't use them to brush away the tear that leaked from my eye. Luckily the man didn't see it, as he had already turned around and begun walking towards the large double doors of the barn that opened to the frozen world outside, consequently pulling me along with him.

He placed a hand on one of the doors to push it open, then paused and turned to look at me. He must have been thinking the same thing I was, because without a word he removed his thick fur coat from around his shoulders and slipped it over mine.

This sudden show of kindness from my kidnapper bewildered me, to say the least. I stared at him with one eyebrow raised as his coat enveloped my body like a warm winter blanket.

My eyes must have asked the question for me that my mouth couldn't, because he shrugged in response. "I may be a kidnapper, but that doesn't mean I can't be a gentleman." He turned to open the doors, then paused, turned and gave me the cheekiest grin I've ever seen in my life. "By the way, my name is Camus."

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><p>My father Godwin has a map of the entire continent of Adonea hanging on the south wall of his private study. It was given to him for his eighteenth birthday by his father, the previous mayor of Kardia who died less than a month later from a swift and devastating case of cholera, leaving the village in the hands of his son who had only recently passed into adulthood. With this sudden change in rule the village suffered somewhat of a downfall agriculturally. Many of the villagers became distressed, skeptic of the capability of their new mayor. However, Godwin was guided as mayor with the help of his uncle Roy as well as the middle-aged priest Wesley who had served as his mentor since he was a young lad. Soon Kardia was thriving economically once more, although to the immense heartbreak of my father Roy disappeared a few short years later. Wesley was there to comfort my father during this time as well as when his wife Elaine died while giving birth to me, and in return for his loyalty Godwin chose him to be my godfather.<p>

Being as I was forbidden to physically venture beyond Kardia's borders and was therefore limited to the geographic knowledge of the town I've known like the back of my hand since I was a young girl, I soon developed the habit of sneaking into my father's study and poring over the map that hung over his desk with the excitement of a child reading her first full-length novel. I was enthralled by the detailed drawings of neighboring towns and cities and mountain chains and rivers that I had never even heard of. It even showed islands that were located hundreds of miles off the coast of Adonea. One of the names of the towns that was situated on a particularly small island I recognized because my father often talked of the prospect of doing trade with them, a small farming borough called Mineral Town. Someday I hoped to visit all of those places, but Mineral Town was first on my list. The fact that it was located so far away was the main reason I had for wanting to go there so badly, but it also seemed like a quaint little place, not unlike Kardia, and would therefore probably be a good second step in my forbidden travels.

As I walked along the path leading away from Kardia while absent-mindedly plucking the petals off a wildflower I had picked, stories of the dangerous criminals that lurked in the shadows of the trees waiting for young girls such as myself to make a foolish move such as wandering into the forest unaccompanied by a man seemed almost unfathomable. How could anyone with motives other than those that were pure choose such a natural, beautiful place to commit a crime? They would have to have no appreciation whatsoever for the wonders of nature in order to follow through with their ill intentions. How could one not be lost in a sort of mesmerized trance while walking under the canopy of gold and crimson as I did now?

Despite the carefree frame of mind I was in at that moment, my natural instinct when I heard footsteps behind me was to freeze like a deer caught in the beam of a flashlight. Of course my main worry was that it was someone from town taking a spontaneous stroll through the woods. I had memorized everyone's daily schedules by now, therefore I knew exactly who I could expect to find here at what time and had planned my outing around those occasions. Though people seldom broke routine in Kardia, it was known to happen, especially if it involved one of the mischievous village youngsters. Though I was by no means considered a youngster, my father had made sure to inform all the adults of the village of the boundaries imposed on me, and no one dared disobey the mayor, especially if it could potentially put his precious daughter and their future ruler in harm's way.

The only person I wasn't afraid of being caught by was Mist. Mist and I had a sort of mutual understanding of each other, and she had watched from her window with a compassionate smile on her pale face as I glided past her house on my journey to the forest that morning. Though we seldom interacted unless I happened to bump into her on the streets, I think she had a rare appreciation for adventure and rebellion and wouldn't dare to interfere with mine.

The footsteps became increasingly closer together, as though their owner was in a hurry, and I soon became aware that I had not one pursuer, but two. Panicking, I did what any sensible prey would do when being hunted- I leaped behind the nearest bush.

I ducked down as low as I could and strained to hear the voices that floated from their mouths fast and low, as though they were trying to conceal them. From what I could tell they belonged to a man and a woman, and I realized with surprise that they were not speaking with normal Kardian accents but with ones that were completely foreign.

The footsteps were coming from different directions now. It seemed the whoever these people were had split up and were scouring the forest for something. I briefly wondered whether I should offer to help with their search, and then I heard there voices again, this time in clear shouts that rang through the trees.

"Any sign of her?"

"Not yet."

"Well, keep looking. She can't have gone far."

I stifled a gasp as the realization dawned on me that these people, whoever they were, were strangers. Strangers who obviously had the intention of finding me.

I didn't plan on sticking around long enough to find out why.

Heart pounding, I waited until both sets of footsteps sounded a safe enough distance away before crawling backwards into the darkness of the woods. The strangers seemed to only be interested in searching through the foliage at the edge of the path, and I figured the deeper into the forest I went, the better chance I had of getting away from them. It shouldn't be too hard to find my way back to Kardia; all I had to do was retrace the steps parallel to the the path I had taken until I reached a clearing, and then I'd be home free.

Unfortunately, life doesn't always agree with your meticulous plans.

After crawling a good ten feet or so away from the path, I slowly pushed myself to my feet and stood still for a moment, waiting to make sure the strangers hadn't heard me. I then closed my eyes, clasped my hands together in silent prayer, and took a tentative step backwards...

...right into something sturdy, probably a tree trunk. I couldn't help it. I screamed.

I instantly regretted it. Knowing there was little chance that the strangers hadn't heard my outburst, my body immediately shifted into flight mode. Even though I was a girl of fragile health, I was known for being fairly fast on my feet, and running away was now my only hope of escape. If I could outrun them long enough for them to get lost trying to catch up with me, I just might be able to make it back to Kardia.

Low-hanging branches swiped at my head and arms as I ran, suddenly much less friendly than they had seemed on the sunlit path. Once my long hair got tangled in one of them, and it took several intense and painful seconds before I was finally able to yank it free. I stumbled over rocks and roots, once jamming my foot into one and slicing my toenail, but the pain was overruled by the adrenaline that was pumping through my body. Several times I could've sworn I heard footsteps behind me, but I didn't dare look back to find out. I knew I had strayed from the path I had planned to follow and now had absolutely no sense of where I was, but I couldn't stop running for fear of being caught. It was by far the most terrifying few minutes of my life.

All I could think about the entire time was my dear father; how disappointed he would be if he knew I had disobeyed him, how I couldn't let him find out about my escapade, how I would never be allowed to leave my own house if he did. I suppose it was a rather insignificant worry at the time, but the human mind works in strange ways when put under pressure.

My breathing was beginning to come in short gasps, my lungs working overtime to supply the oxygen my body needed to keep going. I had never run this fast or far before in my life, and I wasn't sure how much endurance I had left in me. To top it off a side stitch had formed on the right side of my stomach, making it almost impossible to concentrate on anything else but the unbearable pain I felt there, but still I couldn't stop running. I had to make it to Kardia. I had to.

I burst into daylight without even realizing I had been heading towards it. The sudden intensity of the sun's rays nearly blinded me and caused tears of pain and relief to stream from my eyes. Looking around, I realized I was standing at the edge of the pond less than a mile outside of Kardia. Only a few more minutes and I would be home, safe in the arms of Wesley or Neumann. A huge grin broke onto my face. I had made it. Everything was going to be okay.

My first thought was that the strong arms that suddenly wrapped themselves around my chest belonged to someone from the village who had been frantically looking for me and had hugged me from behind out of sheer joy. I knew that I was sadly mistaken when I felt the tip of a sword beneath my chin.

I stared into the coffee colored eyes of a woman who could hardly be more than two years older than I. She was skinny with white gloves and pink hair cut in a bob around her head. An eye patch rested over her left eye and she wore a navy blue outfit that made it look as though she was some sort of army general. Needless to say, this made her appearance much more intimidating. I quickly dropped my eyes to avoid her fierce gaze.

"Felicity, is it?" Her voice was smooth and had a hard edge to it, as though challenging me to defy her.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied through trembling lips. Despite the fact that the woman only looked like she was nineteen or twenty, I had no intention of disrespecting her while she held the handle of the sword that was now resting on my collarbone.

"Look at me while I'm speaking to you." I clenched my fists as the point of the sword dug the slightest bit deeper into my skin and decided it was in my best interest not to test this woman.

I raised my head reluctantly and met her cold stare.

"My name is Lynette. _Commander _Lynette," she continued. She nodded to the man behind me, whose strong grip on me hadn't loosened once. "This is my commander-in-chief, Aiden. Say hello, Aiden."

"Hello," a deep voice grunted in my ear. The foulest aroma I've ever smelled immediately filled my nostrils, and it took all of my self-control not to gag in disgust. I settled for holding my breath.

Commander Lynette pretended not to notice. "Aiden and I belong to the Sechs Empire." My eyes widened at this statement, which seemed to please her. "That's all you need to know about us for now." She withdrew the sword from my chest and leaned in closer, a villainous smirk on her face. "I don't know much about you, but if I'm not mistaken, I believe you're Godwin's daughter?"

I refused to answer but couldn't stop the blush from creeping into my cheeks. My father could always tell when I was lying about something because of the color of my cheeks. I mentally cursed my natural rosiness.

Commander Lynette smiled. "That's answer enough." She folded her hands together behind her back and spent a few moments gazing around at the magnificent scenery surrounding the pond. "My, this place is beautiful. It's a lovely day for a stroll, isn't it?" she sighed, and I was sure she was mocking me, even though she couldn't have known that that was exactly what I had thought before getting myself stuck in this situation.

She sighed again. "Well, we'd best get going. The Sechs is a short distance from here, but we wouldn't want to risk being seen or heard by one of your friends, now would we?" she said, absent-mindedly touching the blade of her sword. Though I hadn't even thought to yell for help until she spoke those words, I realized it would be suicide to do so now. I was in the crushing hold of what I assumed to be a pretty enormous guy, and the sight of the sword hanging from Commander Lynette's belt wasn't exactly comforting, to say the least.

Putting up a struggle would probably be useless, and besides, at that moment I felt nothing short of paralyzed by fear. So I silently submitted to my kidnappers as they slipped a gag over my mouth and began trussing me up in the usual kidnapping fashion, starting with around my arms and torso and eventually working their way to my wrists and ankles.

Thankfully they were too preoccupied with making sure there was enough rope between the latter to ensure that I wouldn't trip over myself to notice the tears that were running down my face. This was all my fault. I was an idiot for leaving Kardia and thinking I could handle myself, thinking that there weren't people out there who wouldn't take advantage of someone like me. Father was right. Neumann was right. They were just trying to protect me. And I would probably never see either of them again.

As we turned to go, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. Focusing on it, I realized that it was not a some_thing_, but a some_one_, standing with her back turned at the entrance to one of the caves on the far side of the pond.

_Sharron! _An immense wave of relief flooded my body, making me go weak in the knees so that Aiden had to support me. Even though I hardly knew the mysterious, beautiful woman that lurked around the caves surrounding the pond, I felt sure that she would help me.

Despite my resolve not to cause any trouble for myself, after a few moments of squirming I tore myself free from an infuriated Aiden's grasp and ran to the edge of the pond. "Sharron!" I tried to call through the gag. Instead a strange, muffled noise came out which she didn't seem to hear, but I didn't let that stop me. I started to run towards the chain of boulders that led across the pond to the cave where she stood. "Shmur-rn!" I called again.

But just as I was about to take my first step onto one of the boulders, Aiden grabbed me from behind and lifted me in the air. I kicked my feet and struggled as hard as I could, but it hardly seemed to make a difference. Before long I was back on the ground and being dragged back to where Commander Lynette stood with her arms crossed, shaking her head and clucking her tongue in amusement.

I became more frantic and began twisting and turning in Aiden's arms, desperately trying to make myself heard through the gag. "Shmur-rn! _Shmur-rn!"_ I cried as tears of frustration poured down my cheeks.

She turned with curiosity and confusion in her eyes just as we entered the forest and out of sight.


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh hey look, an update. :) So you know how when you start to write the next chapter of a story and you get really into it and then you stop and you don't come back to it for another few months and when you read over it you realize you're not content with what you see and you don't have any motivation to fix it but at the same time you have too much integrity just to poop out what you've got for your readers who deserve way better? ****...Yeah well, that's what happened to me.**

**I apologize a million times for what will probably be a pretty disappointing chapter considering how long you guys have waited for it, but I promise that the next one will be much longer _and_ way more exciting than this one (and will hopefully be up within the next week!) Thanks for your patience guys, I appreciate it sooo much! Enjoy! :)  
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><p><em>I became more frantic and began twisting and turning in Aiden's arms, desperately trying to make myself heard through the gag. "Shmur-rn!<em> Shmur-rn!" _I cried as tears of frustration poured down my cheeks._

_She turned with curiosity and confusion in her eyes just as we entered the forest and out of sight._

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><p>I soon learned that Commander Lynette had not a single compassionate bone in her body.<p>

After departing from the pond outside of Kardia we traveled through the forest for what felt like several hours, and not once did the woman slow down as I stumbled along behind her, struggling to keep up with her brisk pace while concentrating on not tripping over the fairly short bit of rope between my ankles. Whenever I did fall she merely stopped briefly, rolled her eyes and ordered her commander-in-chief to wrench me to my feet, then continued on at the same pace.

Said brute named Aiden was no better, although I could have sworn I saw him sneak an apologetic glances in my direction once or twice. Of course these were of no real help to me, but I appreciated the sympathy nonetheless.

When we finally arrived outside the magnificent gates of the Sechs Empire, Lynette begrudgingly removed my gag and ordered me to keep silent. She and Aiden then had to go through a long and complex screening process before they were finally granted permission to enter by a menacing guard who looked as though the prospect of slaying small children wouldn't cost him a second thought.

The doors opened and all three of us stepped through, I in the middle of course. If I hadn't been so terrified of what was going to happen to me as Lynette led us through the streets of the city, I would have gasped in awe.

Despite the fact that it was less than a twenty-mile radius from Kardia, the empire was nothing like my humble hometown. The monstrously tall buildings that loomed all around me looked more like machines that could swallow hundreds of people whole than domestic residences. The city itself glistened in a sheen of silver and gold, not a brick or cobblestone in sight. Even the road I walked on was paved with an unfamiliar substance that was neither rock nor metal.

The fashion here was different as well. My peasant dress, woven with silk and considered the modern style in Kardia, seemed primitive and modest compared to the flashy attire of the people we passed, people who didn't seem to take the least bit interest in a foreigner being led through the streets like a dog on a leash. If someone walked through _my_ hometown with a bound girl trailing behind them, you can be sure they wouldn't get far before someone stopped them.

For a moment, I felt comforted by the thought that perhaps this was all just part of a horrific nightmare that I couldn't escape from. How on earth could this place be real?

A gleaming structure that resembled something like a palace made of metal and glass was located at the top of a hill I now find myself ascending. I realized with dread building in the pit of my stomach that they must be taking me to the Sechs emperor, a man whose name I had heard whispered among the adults of Kardia as though it were a profanity.

Knowing that my father would give me a dishonest answer in order to keep me sheltered from the affairs of the outside world, I had once asked Wesley about him. He told me that Emperor Ethelberd was a cruel, power-thirsty man whose goal was to conquer the entire continent of Adonea, even if it meant sacrificing innocent lives in the process. No one knew how he had come to be the ruler of the Sechs, as the previous emperor had had no heirs that anyone knew of, and many believed that the cause of his death was not as natural and Ethelberd claimed it to be. He was feared and disliked by all except for his own people, and even they dared not question his authority for fear of the consequences that might follow.

I could still recall my godfather's exact words in my mind like they had been spoken yesterday:

"He's a very bad person, Felicity. You must never underestimate the evil that a man can possess in the inner recesses of his heart. If ever you come face-to-face with such a dangerous being, do not say or do anything that might anger him. Submit to his will in the hopes that he will spare your life, and meanwhile pray to God for rescue from his clutches, because only a miracle can save you then."

He had then given me a cookie and told me to run off and play with the other children, and I had practically dismissed his words of warning as irrelevant advice from an overly protective godparent.

Funny how I never thought I would actually have to put that advice to use.

* * *

><p>Nine thousand, nine hundred seventy-two. Nine thousand, nine hundred seventy-three. Nine thousand, nine hundred seventy-four.<p>

My feet felt like weights attached the bottoms of my ankles that dragged the rest of my body mercilessly along with them. It was as though I was moving in slow motion, and every step I counted was not a step towards my destination but another step _away_ from my home, from my family, from life as I knew it forever.

What can I say, I've always been a "glass-half-empty" kinda girl.

Unlike most of Mineral Town's elders, I never mastered the skill of reading the position of the sun in the sky like a clock. Therefore I had no genuine sense of time while trekking through muddy forest paths and battling my way down freezing mountain trails for what felt like days on end, which Camus later informed me had in reality been less than three hours.

Speaking of the devil, my captor didn't seem the least bit bothered by the icy winds that howled all around us as we made our descent from Mother Hill. I, on the other hand, was shivering violently despite the fact that I had a good twenty pounds of animal fur insulating my body. Even my teeth were chattering through the gag that acted as a flimsy sort of scarf. Camus either didn't notice or didn't care (I assumed it was the latter), and I suffered like this throughout must of our journey.

The longer it went on, the more I began to regret what my mother often called my "motor mouth". Maybe if I hadn't been so feisty with Zack to begin with, I could used my mouth to my advantage and sweet-talked my way out of this situation instead of sassing him.

My thoughts began to wander, and I found myself flashing back to the last time Cliff had warned me about my quick tongue, almost an entire season ago. A season that felt more like an eternity.

"_It's gonna get you in trouble one day, Claire," my fiance sighed. It was the night after his proposal and everyone in Mineral Town was already "mysteriously" aware of our engagement. We had spent half the day sorting through letters of congratulations and the rest politely receiving ecstatic, gift-toting visitors to my home. Needless to say, Cliff hadn't been pleased about all of the attention._

"_You're gonna be Mineral Town's second Manna," he continued seriously. "Do you really want that reputation?"_

"_Oh please, babe," I said, rolling my eyes as I buried myself beneath his arms. It was a crisp fall night and we were curled up under a blanket beneath the honey tree outside my house, gazing up at the ink black sky glowing with stars. "I don't think anyone can replace Manna. I only talk about my own business. _She_ talks about everyone else's and then some."_

_Cliff chuckled. Neither of us spoke for a while, both absorbed in our own thoughts._

"_Cliff," I said as I untangled myself from his grasp and sat up, suddenly curious about something._

_My fiance remained horizontal and silent, but turned his attentive gaze to my face as though prompting me to continue._

"_What..." I chewed on my words, not really sure how to ask the question that was on my mind. "What would you do if, say..." I stopped. A nagging in the back of my head told me that the question that was about to come out of my mouth would be better left unasked. "Uh... never mind."_

"_What, Claire?" Cliff said, nudging me playfully. "Come on, tell me what's on your mind."_

_I breathed a sigh of resignation, forming a puff of steam that lingered before my eyes and then dissolved into thin air like it had never been there in the first place. "Well, I was just wondering... what would you do if... if in the future, something... something were to happen to me? Like, I died or went missing or something dramatic like that? Would you be upset and cry? Or would you move on and fi-...find someone else to replace me?"_

_Once the question left my lips, I realized that it did indeed sound utterly idiotic, like something a five-year-old would ask his mother. _What kind of question was that to ask the man you're engaged to? _I berated myself. '_Honey, do you love me?'would have sounded less ridiculous. Goddess Claire, what's wrong with you?

_I covered my face with my hands, suddenly humiliated with myself. "Cliff, just... forget I asked that, okay?" I whispered._

_The earth was still for a moment, and then warm fingers clasped my wrists and lowered my hands to my lap. I stared at the ground, not wanting to look Cliff in the face for fear I would see him laughing at me._

_My fiance pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek with his hand. "Claire, look at me," he commanded softly. I obeyed, blinking away the tears of embarrassment that had welled in my eyes._

_He stared at me for a moment, his liquid blue eyes filled with a strange mixture of amusement and compassion, his mouth set in a straight line that was neither a smile nor a frown. This was one of those times when I wanted to know exactly what thoughts were running through his mind._

_Instead he slowly closed the distance between our lips, and I reluctantly accepted it as his answer._

_Because in truth, I didn't want to know his real one._


	4. Chapter 4

**I cannot even begin to apologize to you guys for how long I've made you wait for these updates, I'm sure they're just killing you inside :P All I can say is thank you to anyone who is still reading this and hasn't given up on me, and I promise I'm going to try harder to give you guys faster updates because you deserve them! Thank you to every single person who has taken the time to review this fic, it means a lot to me :)**

**(****For those of you who might be confused: yes, this story is technically a crossover so yes, it does technically belong in the Rune Factory/Harvest Moon crossover section. However, I figure that Rune Factory is technically a Harvest Moon game anyway, so does it really matter which category it's in? ...Alright alright, I'll be honest with you guys. YES, I did switch it over to just the Rune Factory category in the hopes of getting more readers. But can you really blame me? How many people actually _consistently_ check the crossover sections- like two? And not to sound really vain or anything, but I think this story deserve a little more attention than it was getting. Judge me all you want, but let my words do the talking ;) )**

**Hope y'all enjoy chapter four!**

**-Butterfly**

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><p>It was as though we had stepped into a completely different world. I knew that Kardia was somewhat backwards compared to the rest of Adonea, but I had no idea civilization had advanced <em>this<em> much.

The emperor's castle was nothing like the medieval mansion I had read about in my picture books as a child. One of the infinite things that surprised me about it was how _airy_ it was inside. I had always thought a castle would be dark, damp and musty, but this one was nothing of the sort. The ceiling was composed of glass windows that fed the entire building with sunlight and were crisscrossed in strange patterns by thin golden beams. In every room I looked I saw at least one piece of technology that looked complicated and unfamiliar. (My father just recently bought something from Ivan called a "television set," a wondrous box with a screen through which we could watch teeny tiny black-and-white people moving around inside. In the palace there were at least one of these contraptions inside every room, except they were much thinner and the pictures inside of them had colors that were even brighter than those in real life. If I hadn't been terrified for my life I would have been fascinated by them.)

Instead of suits of armor, the hallways were lined with strange sculptures made of iron and metal that somewhat resembled men in a bizarre, abstract way. Their eyes glowed and they looked as though they would spring to life at any second. I shrank backwards into Aiden's chest fearfully as we passed one, causing him to grunt in annoyance and push me forward again.

The palace had a distinct smell to it, like hot metal mixed with the scent of food that wafted from what I assumed was a kitchen somewhere nearby. My mouth watered and with a pang in my stomach I realized I had forgotten to eat breakfast before embarking on my rebellious journey. Perhaps if I pretended to swoon from hunger Lynette would be merciful enough to feed me...

The thought had hardly crossed my mind when it was interrupted by a sharp tug on my arm. Lynette pulled me forward until the bridge of my nose was barely three inches from her eyes, which bored into mine with a ferocity that made my hands tremble. Once again it took all my willpower not to look away from them.

"Now you listen to me," she hissed, her grip on my arm tightening until I winced in pain. "We are entering the emperor's throne room. If you dare do anything out of line or show disrespect to your ruler in any way, you'll pay consequences far beyond what your little Kardian mind can imagine. Is that clear?"

I nodded feebly, and then my face hardened. Her words had struck a defiant chord within me that I had not known was there.

"You can take me away from my home," I whispered, "but Ethelberd is _not_ my ruler." My voice quivered with suppressed anger as I spoke the next words. "And neither are you."

Lynette glared coldly at me for a few moments before suddenly raising her arm. I flinched, waiting for her to strike.

Instead she reached her hand towards my face and used her thumb and forefinger to pinch me by the cheeks like a small child. Her lips twisted into a malicious grin as I struggled to turn my head away while Aiden kept a firm hold on my arms.

"You _will_ learn your place here, Miss Felicity," she said smugly. "And I can't _wait_ to be the one to teach it to you."

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><p>I consider myself a pretty brave person. Blood, airplanes, fire, stray dogs, needles, toasters, public speaking, spiders, guns, scary movies, irritable pregnant cows; most of the things that normally bother people I just shrug my shoulders at. I've been that way since I was little. (Want proof? Ask my brother Jack about the time he snuck up behind me while I was eating breakfast and dangled a writhing garter snake he had dug up in our yard that morning inches from my nose. Know what I did? I burst into tears and begged him to share it with me. Honest to Goddess. I know, I was a strange child.)<p>

There's only one thing in the entire world that I fear from the very core of my being, and that thing is riding on a boat.

It's unexplainable, but I've been that way for as long as I can remember. I refuse to put my feet into anything bigger than a canoe in a creek, and even those I'm leery of. Wanna know how bad it is? When I made my move from New York City to Mineral Town, I had to pay my uncle John to give me a ride in his private airplane because the only other method of transportation there was via ferry.

So when Camus told me as I was drifting off to sleep in a cave we had settled in for the night that a privately owned ship would deliver us to our destination the next morning, I threw a minor temper tantrum. (This included but was not limited to: crying. Screaming. Begging. Pleading. Crying. Stomping. Kicking. More crying. Scratching. Hissing. The throwing of small rocks. Still more crying.)

Nevertheless, early the next morning we arrived at the ship's dock. As we waited to board I could hear the ship's crew members making humiliating comments about the various cuts and bruises I had inflicted on Camus after he stupidly untied me before making his little announcement the night before. I would have taken immense pride in these if I hadn't already been stripped of every last bit of dignity I owned. Not only had my infuriated captor made sure to gag me before leaving the cave, he had also blindfolded me and wrapped my entire torso from chest to waist with rope so the only range of motion I had was in my neck and legs.)

Despite my severely limited movement, it still took four members of the ship's crew plus Camus to physically drag me onto the ship, all the while enduring my frantic kicking and heavy muffled cursing. Once I was on board they lifted me up paramedic-style and carried me to the ship's cellar (or at least that's what I assumed after hearing a door slam shut and being engulfed in total blackness.)

Although I hated feeling so helpless, I had to admit the blindfold was actually a blessing. If I had been able to see out of the porthole that most ships were rumored to have (of course I didn't know this for a fact as I had never been inside of one until now), I probably would have done something drastic like bang my head on the wall until I lost consciousness. As long as I ignored the lurching feeling in the pit of my stomach every time my body was tossed to the side like a sack of fodder by the ship's rocking, I could hopefully keep my sanity intact until we reached land.

For the second time since my kidnapping I thought about Cliff, wondering how this unexpected turn of events was affecting him. My fiance was a worrywart as it was, always fretting over silly things like making sure he got the correct amount of change from Jeff and not being a minute late to his weekly supper with Duke and Manna. I was sure he would have gone into panic mode and organized a search party the moment he discovered me missing from my bed.

In fact, the whole town was probably in an upheaval over my absence by now. Things like theft and abductions just didn't happen in Mineral Town. The most dramatic thing I had ever experienced in my four years of living there was the time that May wandered off from under Carter's watch. It had taken a combined effort of all the adults nearly a day before they found her beside Goddess Pond, weaving flowers through her hair and chattering happily to the Harvest Goddess. Most of them were half-hysterical then; I couldn't imagine what they would be like now that I had been gone for a good forty-eight hours at least.

_This must be the most exciting emergency Harris has ever had to deal with,_ I thought grimly, reflecting on how our town's watchman was always complaining about how peacefully boring life was there.

And then a horrible thought struck me, one that would have made me gasp aloud if it hadn't been for the gag. What if the possibility of a kidnapping hadn't even crossed people's minds? What if they assumed I had _chosen_ to run away, that I had decided Mineral Town was too dull of a place and farming too laborious of a career and had simply called it quits one night and hightailed it out of there?

My next thought would have made me scream.

What if Cliff thought that I _left_ him?

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><p>The insignificant amount of courage that had built up within me during my conversation with Lynette fled my body as soon as I took my first step into the emperor's throne room. My jaw unhinged and my knees became so weak that Aiden had to hold onto me to keep me from collapsing.<p>

The room itself was bigger than the entire inside of the Kardian cathedral and twice as grand in decoration. The floor was composed not of tile but of polished marble that showed my reflection almost as clearly as if I had been looking into a mirror. The ceiling stretched at least fifty feet above our heads and had what looked to be an intricately detailed map of the continent of Adonea painted upon it. All around us were humungous windows draped with curtains that looked rich and thick enough to be carpets. Stationed on both sides of every window were those fearsome statues I had seen earlier, except these ones were plated with gold and wore fine coats of glittering gems that I was sure not even Wesley knew the names of.

But the most impressive part of the room was by far the one we were approaching now, and that was where Ethelberd's throne was. Set at least fifteen feet above the rest of the room by a luxurious carpeted staircase flanked by human guards on every step, the chair looked as though it was worth more than all of the jewels in Kardia's mines put together. Made of what I could only guess was the substance called _platinum _and decorated with diamonds and rubies that were bigger than my fists, it was the most splendid thing I had ever laid eyes on. Part of me longed just to touch it to make sure it were real.

The man sitting on that regal masterpiece had a look about him that was both majestic and terrifying at once. He was dressed in a robe the color of midnight that was lined around the neck by a thick fur collar, giving him the impression of being half-panther, half-lion. Long silver hair flowed from the top of his head to around his shoulders and concealed half his face. The other half had a worn and leathery look to it, with wrinkles etched around his mouth and across his forehead. The skin around his visible eye was rimmed with scars that gave him an undeniable expression of cruelty.

My heart leaped into my throat when I realized that this glistening green eye was fixed upon me. I watched as Ethelberd raised one of his long, bony fingers and slowly curved it towards him, beckoning us forward.

Paralyzed with fear like a deer caught in the shine of a flashlight, I knew I couldn't move even if I wanted to. Aiden had to take me by the shoulders and force me to walk, every step bringing me closer and closer to the man whom my father had spent the past nineteen years of my life trying to protect me from... the man whose trap I had walked right into in one foolish moment of rebellion.

To my immense relief we stopped a good ten feet away from where the steps leading to his throne began. Aiden waited with me while Lynette strode boldly to the foot of the steps, bowed, and saluted. "Your Majesty."

The emperor gave a solemn nod to his dutiful servant. "Well done, Commander, well done," he appraised her. "Was the girl difficult to subdue?"

"Not in the least," Lynette replied, a smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. "She put up somewhat of a struggle at first, but I would hardly count that as difficult. She seems pretty fragile, Your Honor."

I resented that word, "fragile." It was the word countless doctors had used when they were describing my rare condition to my father. _There's nothing seriously wrong with her, Godwin_, they would say with a sigh, knowing my father wouldn't accept their final diagnosis unless they repeated it several times. _She's not going to die young or lose any of her limbs. This disease, whatever it is, does nothing more than make her perpetually exhausted and weaken her immune system. It isn't deadly. She's just..._(here they would spend several moments contemplating until they found the perfect word) ..._more_ fragile_ than others her age._

My fragility was the reason I had never been allowed to swim out past the breakers of the ocean or take a hike with Neumann to the crest of Mount Gigant. I was simply too delicate to partake in any sort of physically taxing activity that could pose a risk to my health- at least, that was how my father always put it.

Ethelberd was nodding again, the look on his face one of satisfaction. "One of our spies informed me that she suffers from some kind of strange, incurable ailment. Not fatal, just crippling. That's why she's the perfect choice."

I gasped despite myself and was immediately punished by a hard jab in the ribs from Aiden. I ignored the pain that throbbed in my side as my mind reeled with this new and horrifying discovery. _A spy in Kardia? Who could it possibly be? Who _betrayed_ me to the Sechs Empire?_

Lynette nodded thoughtfully, then turn to examine me as though she was seeing me for the first time. "Incurable, hm? Perhaps you should have Doctor Elias have a look at her. He'd certainly be interested in researching her condition."

This suggestion surprised me, and a new thought entered my mind. Had I been brought here so that the emperor could find a cure for my illness?

I immediately shook the ridiculous idea out of my head, annoyed at my own naivety. If that had been the case, Ethelberd could simply have sent Doctor Elias to Kardia to examine me there, not gone to all the trouble of dispatching two high-rank members of the military to capture me and bring me to the empire themselves. Sechan or not, my father never turned away a potential cure. There had to be another reason, one that I just couldn't figure out.

I was suddenly aware that the emperor had risen from his chair and was now descending the steps toward me, a curious glint in his battered eye.

A cold sweat broke out on my neck and my teeth began chattering so loudly I was sure everyone in the room could hear them. Black stars scattered before my eyes, and I almost wished that one of my frequent fainting spells would come over me now so I could escape from this situation and discover after waking up in my own bed in Kardia that the whole experience had merely been one long, horrible nightmare.

But alas, consciousness prevailed and I was trapped inside Emperor Ethelberd's throne room, my heart beating like an anvil against my chest. I hardly even noticed when Aiden kicked the back of my shins and caused my legs to buckle, too preoccupied with listening to Wesley's words of warning spin through my mind like one of Neumann's broken records- _Submit to his will in the hopes that he will spare your life, and meanwhile pray to God for rescue from his clutches... because only a miracle can save you then._


	5. Chapter 5

**So my eyes literally feel like they're about to shrivel up and fall out of their sockets, but this chapter was (I hope!) totally worth it. Now I can finally start a new chapter completely from scratch and hopefully not get stuck in a rut while I try to piece my thoughts together like I did with this one and the one before it. I was thinking about adding more of Felicity's POV to this chapter but decided I couldn't wait to publish it, so if you feel like it's unfair that Claire's getting so much spotlight in this one don't worry- Felicity's time to shine is coming. :) Enjoy chapter five, my new and faithful readers (if any of you are still out there)!**

**-Butterfly**

**P.S. I'm tentatively searching for a beta for this story, so PM me if you think you might qualify for the job!**

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><p>Cold fingers were running through my hair, trailing from the roots to the tips and back up again in a steady, rhythmic motion. An involuntary shiver caused my entire body to lunge forward, and just in time I thrust my bound hands out to catch myself on the marble floor. Above the pale, petrified face staring back at me was Ethelberd's distorted gray one.<p>

Chuckling cruelly, he reached down and patted my head as though I was a loyal dog. "No, I don't think Felicity here will give us too much trouble during her stay here," he surmised as I quivered beneath his touch.

Suddenly I felt a hand grasp me around the elbow. Thinking it was Aiden forcing me to stand up simply because he could, I reluctantly got to my feet... only to find myself face-to-face with the emperor of the Sechs Empire.

If time could freeze, it would have in that moment. Once again I found myself going weak in the knees, and it took all my willpower to remain upright, to hold the gaze of the man I used to have nightmares about as a child.

To my utter shock and bewilderment he smiled at me, and his next words were a sharp order to Lynette. "Commander, untie our guest and escort her to the imperial bedroom. Tell one of the servants to give her a bath and make sure she has plenty to eat and drink. I want her to look refreshed for our announcement to the empire."

"Yes, Your Majesty," she replied. Without the slightest hint of hesitation she began unraveling the ropes from around my wrist as Aiden did the same to my ankles, but I could tell by both of their face that they were just as stunned by the royal treatment I was receiving as I was. Perhaps my own eyes deceived me, but I could have sworn to the Goddess I saw Ethelberd's left eye close in a wink before he released me into Aiden's expectant arms and turned to ascend the stairs to his throne.

As the three of us exited the emperor's presence, my mind was spinning so fast I began to feel nauseous. _Announcement? What announcement? Did he say he was going to make an announcement with me... to the entire _empire_?_

My hands trembled. I had never been one to give public speeches; in fact, I loathed just having to stand next to my father in front of everyone in Kardia while he made announcements in the town square. Standing before a crowd of people that was almost ten times larger than that and doing so not as a friend or neighbor but as a _prisoner _of the _empire_...

Darkness enveloped me.

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><p>I was struggling to keep the salmon Camus and I had devoured for dinner from climbing up my throat when the sound of footsteps and cheerful whistling invaded my thoughts. It was immediately interrupted by a scratchy voice which (I could tell by the slurring) clearly belonged to someone that had helped himself to more than one bottle of rum that morning.<p>

"Hey kid, you see that gull all fetta'd up in the corner over there by those crates? The real perdy one with the nice yella hayer?"

My heart dropped through the cracks of my ribcage and into the pit of my stomach. Unless there was some other blonde chick being held captive here that I didn't know about, I was pretty sure I know who that guy was referring to as the "real perdy one," and I was pretty sure I didn't want to know what thoughts were running through his drunken mind. Frantic, I began squirming futilely against my ropes, praying to the Goddess that Camus would (ironically) come to my rescue before this perv got a hold of me.

The Goddess must have been preoccupied with everyone else in Mineral Town's prayers (thanks guys, apparently crops and cows take priority over Claire's well-being), because the next sound I heard was two pairs of careful footsteps, as though the men approaching me were trying to be sneaky about it. I wrinkled my nose at the all-too familiar stench of alcohol that came along with them.

"D'ya think anywunna'd mind if we took a quick peek under those overalls of hers?" the man who had until now remained silent asked his companion, an unmistakable note of excitement in his voice.

I was officially in panic mode. Besides being terrified for my virginity, I was furious at Camus. How could he be so stupid as to leave an attractive female like myself (not to sound vain or anything but hey, I did do some modeling shoots back in NYC) alone in the cellar of a ship that belonged to men who spent half their lives at sea and probably experienced sexual contact with women once a year if they got lucky? What an imbecilic move!

A rough hand brushed at my collarbone and my breathing quickened almost to the point of hyperventilation. I tried to comfort myself with the hope that perhaps they would settle for mere fondling and I could still leave the ship with my innocence somewhat intact.

I began to seriously doubt that when I felt one of the men place his hand placed on my inner thigh. I sent one final desperate plea to the Goddess as it slowly began making its way northward, then closed my eyes behind the handkerchief that covered them and waited for the worst._ On the bright side, I won't have to look at their faces while they do it..._

A door banged violently open and precious light flooded through my closed lids.

"_WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"_

The new voice that sliced through my eardrums like a bolt of thunder startled myself as well as the men who had been on the verge of violating me. Their hands immediately left my body as though it were a hot stove that had burned them and they began shouting drunken apologies at the intruder.

"I'm sorry sir, it's jess'at she was there and we thought..."

"Well, we didn' know there was anythin' wrong with..."

"She's juss a pris'ner so we assumed..."

Their excuses were replaced by thuds and howls of pain, and I could only assume that the man who interrupted their almost-crime had taken it upon himself to punish them for it. I curled myself into a fetal position until the sounds of the beating stopped, afraid of being caught in the crossfire. My entire body was shaking like it never had before, and I had to clench my teeth together for fear that if I opened my mouth I would vomit.

It wasn't until what felt like an eternity later that I heard the sound of the drunk men grumbling and retreating back up the stairs to the ship's deck. The door closed and it was dark once again. My heart was just beginning to regain its regular beat when...

"Are you hurt, miss?"

I jumped out of my skin and gasped, only to inhale the cloth covering my mouth halfway down my throat. As I choked on the gag my mind began reeling out of control. That voice... it wasn't... no, it couldn't be. It was impossible. No, no, no, no, _no_...

Before I had time to register what was happening, cool fingers slunk beneath the blindfold and slowly peeled it away from my eyes. I blinked at the dark-skinned face that was inches from my own, its features frozen with shock. I bit my tongue and waited for him to speak first.

It didn't take long. "Oh my Goddess, _Claire? _Is that... is that _you_?" he cried, disbelief evident in his eyes.

So he did recognize me.

The voice was what had given him away. It was a smooth, rich blend of accents unlike any I had heard before in all my life that came together in an orchestra of laziness and lightheartedness. It whispered and it laughed, it joked and it soothed. It made boys crack their knuckles and it made girls go weak in the knees. It made itself welcome in Mineral Town once a year and departed thirty days later, leaving behind a weeping mass of women and a relieved bunch of men.

And it belonged to _him_.

Of all the emotions I felt the moment Kai said my name, the strongest one was humiliation. I realize it made no sense for me to feel embarrassed at that moment; in fact, I should have been happy or at the very least relieved to see a familiar face. But let's face it: no girl wants to reunite with her ex-boyfriend of almost two years after not having showered for two days, especially not while tied up below the deck of a ship that's headed to some unknown destination. Not exactly a picture-perfect scenario right there.

So what did I do to make things even worse than they already were? I started crying.

Let's get something straight. Save for a couple of tears at my favorite cow's funeral, I'm one of those rare girls that almost never cries, _especially_ in front of others. I hate the feeling of weakness it gives me, and I hate receiving any form of sympathy from people.

But I couldn't help it. Through everything that happened in these past two days, I only had my own strength to rely on. Now that someone I was familiar with knew my predicament and was right there in front of me, the tears just came gushing out as though a fire hydrant had split open behind my eyes.

"Shh, shh... Claire, it's alright, everything's gonna be fine. Come on babe, stop crying. I know you're stronger than that." Kai located where my tiny hands stuck out from my body at an odd angle and gently began massaging them with his fingers. His chocolate brown eyes were full of compassion and another emotion that I couldn't identify at the moment as they swept over the ropes that bound my body. "Goddess Claire, what did _you_ of all people do to get in trouble with the _Sechs_? I mean, you were never what I would consider a 'good girl,' but still, I didn't think you'd get into _this _much trouble after I left..."

The deadly gaze I gave him was all it took to shut Kai up. He put his hands up in mock defense, then leaned forward and carefully lowered the gag from my lips. "Okay, so now that all the joking's over with, talk to me Claire. Tell me everything you know."

"That's just _it,_ Kai!" I cried, surprised at how hoarse and raw my voice sounded. I suppose not being able to swallow properly for so long had taken a toll on my vocal chords. "I honestly have no _idea_ why I'm here. I didn't even know this Sexy Empire thing existed until now!"

Despite the obvious direness of the situation I was in, I could tell Kai was struggling to keep from laughing at my blunder. "Okay then... well, do you how they even found you in the first place? Mineral Town is _miles_ away from their main base."

_Base...? As in... _military_ base?_ I pushed that question to the back of my mind and shrugged, too overwhelmed already. "Well, the guy that brought me here, Camus, is Zack's brother, so apparently he somehow convinced him to do his dirty work."

I must say, the look on Kai's face at that moment was pretty comical. "_Zack_ kidnapped you? How? _Why? _That guy's been crushing on you for years! You were second on his list after Lillia! And besides, if he gets caught, he'll go down as Mineral Town's biggest, possibly _only_ criminal! Why would he want to risk having that kind of a reputation? Then again, I guess that's really the only way to get famous in that rinky dink little hick town..." He noticed my glare and quickly added, "...charming as it is of course..."

If my hands had been free, I would have slapped him. "Forget that, Kai! Focus on _me_ now, not Zack! What's going to happen to _me_?"

Kai shook his head as he stroked his chin, his eyes cloudy with thought. "I don't really know, Claire. Honestly, I just took this job for the money. The guy that hired me told me it was a private vessel owned by some high-ranked official in the Sechs army and made me sign a contract binding me to secrecy before I became part of the crew. I assumed we'd just be transporting goods, maybe weapons that the emperor doesn't want other people finding out about. No one said anything about hostages..."

I started at the last word. "Wait, did you just say _hostages_? Are you telling me I'm being taken to this empire to be held for ransom? What could they _possibly_ want from Mineral Town that they couldn't just buy from us? Our exports aren't even that expensive! Goddess, they could've just set up a trade agreement and that would've solved all their problems but _nooo_, they had to do it the fancy powerful empire-ish way and kidnap the innocent farmer for their own selfish..."

Kai clapped a hand over my mouth mid-sentence, the look in his eyes urgent. "Look Claire, I don't know _why_ you're on this boat, but I do know this. The Sechs Empire is known to be merciless. Believe me, I _know_ it's not part of your nature, but whoever you deal with, you _must_ be submissive to them. If not, you'll be disposed of without a second thought."

He leaned in close and grabbed me by the shoulders, the tone of his voice now dark and menacing. "And by 'disposed of,' I don't mean sent back to Mineral Town on a nice little boat like this one. _Do you understand?_"

A feeble nod was my only answer. My mouth had suddenly gone dry and there was a faint tingling sensation beneath my chin that I was trying hard to ignore.

Something occurred to Kai then, something both of us had almost forgotten about in all the excitement. "Hey... aren't you afraid of boats?"

I opened my mouth to say something sarcastic and vomited all down the front of my ex-boyfriend's bare chest.

* * *

><p><em>Breaking someone's heart was probably the most painful thing I've ever had to do.<em>

_It wasn't that I didn't care about Kai, and it had nothing to do with me feeling like he didn't return those affections. It didn't even bother me when he flirted with other girls the way it did Popuri and Karen, his previous summer loves. I still cherished every single moment we spent together under the blanket of stars that hung above the beach at night, rolling in the sand and kissing until my entire body felt engulfed in glorious flame. To be honest, I think ending our relationship hurt me almost as much as it did him._

_But at the time I was eighteen years old, and the thing I craved most in life besides love was stability. Back home in New York my parents were going through a wreck of a divorce, and when Kai told me he was going away for nine months and wouldn't return until the next summer, I panicked. I had a meltdown right there and then and told him that if he left, we were through. I said I wasn't mature enough to handle a long-distance relationship, that I couldn't bear to be away from him, that if he really and truly loved me he would stay. I cast out all those sappy chick flick one-liners I had picked up over the years in the hopes of reeling him in before he slipped out of my grasp forever._

_But I think Kai was as frightened by the idea of stability as I was the opposite, and so the next morning he left a two-page letter in my mailbox and boarded a ship bound for Fiji._

_I didn't grieve my loss for long, because although the summer breeze swept Kai away from me, the autumn winds brought Cliff with them. It didn't take long for me to fall head-over-heels with the mysteriously quiet boy who attended church even more often than I did, and after I helped him land a job at the winery our initials were practically carved in gold. It seemed like destiny that he had come during a time when we were both in need of a solid rock to cling to._

_Kai started sending postcards from the various islands he made his temporary homes on, pleading with me to wait just two more years for him, promising that if I held out that long he would never leave again. I ignored them, afraid that the enticing offers and pictures of sun-bleached seashores would draw me away from what I had become certain was fate._

_So, in the spring of the year Kai had said he would return for good, I whipped out the symbolic blue feather that had cost me almost two seasons' worth of gold and asked my boyfriend to marry me._

_This unexpected role reversal shocked Cliff into silence at first, and for a moment I was petrified that he would reject me._

_That moment quickly passed. The next thing I knew I was being twirled through the air in my fianc_é_'s arms, our lips smushed together and the blue feather held high above our heads in victory._

_I was so caught up in the whirlwind of wedding plans that any thoughts of Kai were temporarily dashed from my mind..._

_...Until the first day of summer when he showed up on my doorstep._

_For the brief moment our eyes were locked I was able to catch something in his that looked a lot like hurt, but he quickly turned away and cleared his throat before I could investigate further. "So... you're engaged to my roommate at the inn, I hear?" he said cheerfully, his lips frozen in a shiny white smile._

_"Kai, I..." my voice trailed off. I could think of nothing to say; no consoling words, no admission of regret, nothing but pineapple slices, cheap souvenirs and passion-filled memories. That season had left a mark on both of our hearts, but I had moved on since then and I could only hope he had done the same._

_We began a tentative relationship that was inevitably awkward at first, but gradually it became the same comfortable friendship we had shared in the days before our summer together. Pretty soon we were able to pal around and joke with each other like there had never been any tension between us. Kai became like a goofy older brother to me and I like his bratty little sister. Our goodbyes that fall were just as sad as they had been before, but in a bittersweet farewell-between-siblings sort of way, not a tragic-and-heart-wrenching-separation-between-lovers way._

_It was just the way I liked it- knowing that even though Kai was still leaving, I could trust him to always be there for me (just not in a romantic way.)_

_How true that statement would soon prove to be._


	6. Chapter 6

**Geez, I can't believe it's been eight months since I updated this story. I sincerely apologize to all my readers (if any of you are still around that is :P) I can't guarantee when the next update will be, but know that even if it takes me five years to do so, I definitely plan on seeing this story through to the end. I owe myself and you guys that. :)**

**~Butterfly**

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><p><em>I was meandering along a path in the woods outside of Kardia, whistling along with the birds and allowing my thoughts to wander to my father, taking secret pleasure in the knowledge that he would be disappointed with me if he knew I had disobeyed him.<em>

_Suddenly I came upon a fork in the path that was divided by a thick hedge of pine trees. On one side I could see a faint glimmer of light far off into the distance- the place where the forest ended. The other side was completely shrouded in shadows, so dark it was that if I stuck my hand out it looked as though my arm ended at the wrist._

_I knew which path I should take, but the sound of gunshots from behind startled me into involuntary movement and I found myself enveloped in pitch blackness. I turned to escape, but before I could take a step the branches of the trees on both sides of me suddenly reached out and grabbed onto each other, intertwining themselves from the bottom up so that the entrance to the path was sewn up with me inside of it._

_I was trapped in a world of darkness forever._

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><p>The first thought that came to mind upon opening my sleep-encrusted eyes was: <em>Am I in the right room?<em>

When I had imagined what life as a prisoner of the Sechs Empire would be like, I saw myself shackled to the filthy wall of a dimly lit dungeon, weak and emaciated from lack of food and water.

Instead I found myself rising from beneath what must have been at least twenty pounds of down feathers, stitched within a deep red blanket embroidered with golden silk and tiny sparkling gems. The pillow on which my head had rested was no less glamorous, and neither was the rest of the enormous bedroom in which I had awoken.

My mouth hung open in awe as I gazed around the spectacular room. It looked fit for an emperor's wife, not some lowly mayor's daughter from a peasant town outside the border. My eyes landed hungrily on a fancily carved wooden table beside my bed, on which large golden plates of sausage, omelets, ham, muffins, bread, and types of fruit I had only ever read about in books sat.

Slowly I crept from beneath the bedsheets and toward the food, afraid that if I blinked it would all be gone and I would find myself in the dungeon from my imagination. As I came within inches of the table, the smell of melted cheese hit my nose and it took all my willpower not to literally dive into breakfast.

But before I could wrap my greedy fingers around a slice of toasted raisin bread, the door to the bedroom burst open and I found myself under the disapproving glare of Commander Lynette. I immediately snatched my hand away from the table, certain that was the reason for her anger.

She stood in the doorway for several agonizing moments, her arms crossed and her foot tapping up and down in a steady rhythm of impatience.

Finally, she spoke. "Well, it seems Miss Felicity likes to enjoy her beauty sleep, now doesn't it?" she said tauntingly.

Then she marched over to the bed, grabbed me by the roots of my hair and gave them a sharp yank. I cringed and bit my lip, not wanting to utter a single cry of pain and give Lynette any more pleasure in my weakness than she already had.

She seemed to take note of this, for her smile stretched even wider. "Oh, so you've toughened out a bit overnight, hm?" she teased with flashing eyes. "So does that mean you're not going to faint again and topple over the royal balcony while Emperor Ethelberd is giving his speech with you right by his side in front of thousands of people? Huh? Have you overcome your little stage fright issue, Felicity? Have you? I sure hope so, because despite what you saw yesterday, the emperor doesn't have much patience with those who crack under pressure."

Even as I stared defiantly into her eyes, I could feel my heart rate increasing and my palms begin to sweat. I had completely forgotten about what Ethelberd had said about making an announcement with me to the entire empire. Was it true, or was Lynette just trying to break me?

My answer came far, _far_ too soon.

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><p>Although Kai's initial reaction to having half-digested salmon splattered all down his front was to jump about five feet backward and shriek a few choice words at me, he immediately apologized when he saw the tears welling in my eyes.<p>

"Don't worry about it, hon," he said good-naturedly as he wiped himself down with a rag he pulled from the pocket of his cargo pants. "It's not like anyone'll notice the smell anyway. This entire ship reeks of fish."

He sat beside me for the rest of the trip, his left arm around my shoulders and his right hand clutching both of mine, singing what sounded like a Hawaiian lullaby under his breath as he caressed my palms with his warm fingers. Even though it was on a boat, I wished I could have stayed there forever, leaning into my best friend's chest and fighting to keep my eyelids from sliding shut until I couldn't any longer.

When I awoke, Kai was gone.

Panic arose in my chest, but I forced myself to stay calm by taking deep breaths. He was still on this ship somewhere, probably trying to gather whatever scraps of information he could about my fate. As much as I knew he wanted to help me out of my predicament, we both knew he had to do it secretly or else risk both our lives.

It was then that I noticed the piece of paper sticking out from my bra, hidden beneath the fold of my plaid shirt so only I could see it. I grinned despite myself. _Typical, sneaky Kai._

Light suddenly flooded my vision, and I looked up to see Camus and two of the crew members descending the steps. One was clutching his nose and the other had a slight limp, and with a pang of terror I realized these must have been the men that Kai had fended off earlier.

But apparently they had learned their lesson from the beating, because both made sure to stay a good few feet away as Camus approached me. He bent down to my level, gave me a cocky grin, and asked sincerely, "Did you enjoy your ride, Little Miss Alley Cat?"

Assuming that was the nickname he had given me on account of the long scratches I had inflicted on his arms the night he told me about the boat, I couldn't help but give a devious little smile back. "Almost as much as I enjoy your company, Oh Great Orangutan."

This got the guys behind Camus to burst into laughter. I could see the tiniest of furrows in his eyebrows as he stared at me, and for a moment I wondered if I had gone too far.

Suddenly his fingers were locked around my jaw and the men behind him were no longer laughing. I shook my head in an attempt to break free of his iron grip, but that only made him squeeze harder. The corners of his mouth lifted as I winced in pain.

With my mouth currently contorted into an 8-shape similar to that of a trout's, the only possible way to convey the utter sense of loathing I felt toward him at the moment was through my eyes. I could have sworn I saw the two men behind him shiver.

Camus, however, seemed immune to the venom leaking from my gaze. His mouth twisted in a sadistic sort of smile.

"So," he said. "We've arrived at our destination. The Sechs Empire. You probably haven't heard of it before, but you're about to become _very_ familiar with it. When we leave here, I'm going to untie you and we're going to walk through the city like a normal couple who just got back from vacation. Can I trust you to behave yourself in public, Alley Cat?"

I responded with a barely perceptible nod. This didn't seem to satisfy him.

"I _said..._" And he repeated himself, this time with much less sweetness. _"Can I trust you, Claire?"_

After several moments of silence during which the men behind him fidgeted uncomfortably, I finally gave in.

"Yesh, Camush, you can trusht me."

I hated the humiliation that followed these words, hated the way Camus grinned before releasing my jaw, hated the knowledge that he had won once again and that, despite my childlike defiance, in my heart I knew I was completely powerless against him.

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><p>All morning I felt a permeating sense of nausea that didn't ease even when the palace maids began grooming me for the upcoming announcement. They seemed indifferent to the fact that I was a prisoner of the empire and spent hours fussing over my hair, skin, nails, and basically every other part of my body that was visible after putting on the overly ornate dress that Ethelberd had commanded I wear for the occasion.<p>

Normally I would have enjoyed receiving such rare beauty treatment, but I was too preoccupied with worrying about what was to come. Would I be required to speak? Would he question me in front of everyone, try to make me spill Kardia's darkest secrets under threat of torture? Was Ethelberd planning on making a public humiliation of me by having me tarred and feathered in front of all his subjects? (It seemed a bit of an old-fashioned punishment, but it was only thing I could think of.)

There was one thought that I tried in vain to push to the back of my mind whenever it came to me. It made its appearance several times throughout the course of the morning, causing me to hyperventilate and earn concerned glances from the maids.

I finally forced myself to dwell on it just long enough to cause extreme distress to my groomers, who forced me to lie down and insisted that an extended period of sleep would make all the invisible monsters go away. This of course only made things ten times worse, as I now had nothing to distract me from the awful thought I had been trying so hard to evade.

_What if this is not an announcement... but an execution?_

* * *

><p>I had to admit, even for someone who had practically grown up in Times Square, I felt a little overwhelmed at the heart of the Sechs Empire. The only things I could see past the mass of bodies all around us I went were the buildings. Looking as though they had been made by a giant who spent his childhood stacking blocks of gold and silver on top of one another, even the small ones would have dwarfed the highest buildings in NY.<p>

Needless to say, they made a girl in bare feet and overalls feel very out of place.

As Camus stopped to exchange conversation with an official-looking person, a middle-aged woman wearing a form-fitting golden dress suddenly appeared before me. "Oh, Camus, who _is_ this little darling?" she said, smiling down at me like I was a show dog.

Strangers had been approaching us like that all morning, curious as to who the pale blonde girl glued to Camus's side was. I bit back my tongue and forced down the reply that immediately sprang to my lips. _Hi my name's Claire Ann Montgomery and I'm __a prisoner of your empire. How are you doing today?_

Instead I bared my teeth in a grin and stuck out my hand to her. She shook it eagerly.

"Hi, I'm Cassie, Camus' girlfriend. Nice to meet you."

The lady squealed like I had performed a trick and clasped her hands over her chest.

"Oh my, aren't you just precious!" she cried. "Where are you from, dearie?"

I felt the small zap in my side that meant it was time to move on.

"Have a good day, ma'am," I said sweetly as Camus took my arm and continued to weave through the crowd, leaving the woman behind us looking perplexed.

Before we disembarked from the ship, Camus had forced me to attach a miniscule device to my waist that sent painful electric currents through my body whenever he pushed a button on his watch. "To remind you to behave yourself," he had explained as I glared at him.

So far he had used this reminder quite liberally.

"Hey, bro! Nice catch!" a young guy with spiked hair called out as he passed by us. I wrinkled my face in disgust as Camus grinned back at him, and the words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.

"He's been fishing for _years_, you know!"

The guy doubled over in laughter, but I didn't even have time to relish the moment as I felt another shock wave spiral through my system. I had to clench my teeth in order to refrain from saying something I knew would only double the pain.

Camus shook his head. "You're making this a lot harder on yourself than it has to be, you know."

An elderly couple nearby was observing us with interest, so I faked a smile at him as I hissed through my teeth, "You're the one with the remote. You're the one that chooses to zap me every point two-five seconds. You can control that, can't you?"

Despite my anger, I couldn't help cringing as Camus's fingers lingered casually over the button. He grinned and instead used this hand to take hold of my own, causing me to wish I had just endured the shock.

"You know, I _could_ control it," he said, waving to someone in the crowd as we passed, "but I'm just having too much fun with it."

Before I could think of a smart retort, a sudden blast of sound directed our attention towards a grand building in the distance that I assumed to be the emperor's palace. Although the castle itself was too far away to see what was going on, there were large television screens attached to the front of almost every single building in the square that showed us.

An elderly man with magnificent robes and a face that reminded me of a hawk was standing beside a girl in a ridiculously decorative dress. I assumed the birdman was the emperor, and the girl... maybe she was his daughter? Whoever she was, she looked extremely unhappy to be there. Her face reminded me of my friend Popuri as it had a very pouty, childlike appearance to it- except for her eyes.

Dark brown and engulfed by long black lashes, they looked as though they contained within them an entire world of mystery, suffering, and wisdom far beyond the girl's years. The longer I looked into them, the less I saw the face of a stranger whose name I did not even know, and the more I saw that of a person who I was very, _very_ familiar with.

"Cliff," my mouth whispered.

And then I was running, to whom or from what I did not even know; just running, running, running through a mass of arms and legs and faces and thinking of nothing except that I had to get home to Cliff.

Step, step, breathe, step, breathe, step, step. Cliff. Cliff. Cliff. Wait for me, Cliff. Come find me. Please.

I had to get home.

Suddenly I found myself in the middle of this dream where I was running, really fast and really far, so close to escape I could stick out my tongue and taste it, and then there was this huge explosion inside of me and there were all these wires wrapped around my organs spitting out fire and sparks and pain and the only way I could escape it was to fall to the ground and go to sleep and let a big man carry me away from myself.

* * *

><p>There were only two things in the world I was deathly afraid of: crowds and heights.<p>

I was teetering on the brink of the universe, towering billions of miles above an ocean of starving souls. One wrong move and I would plummet into their midst and be devoured in their hungry jaws. Perhaps the emperor would be kind enough to send Daddy my leftover pieces.

Being forced to stand on the highest balcony of the palace was cruel and unusual punishment in itself. Having to do this _while_ facing a strange-looking machine that would supposedly capture my entire body in its little glass eye and plaster it all over screens that everyone in the empire was watching was pure torture.

Ethelberd seemed to sense my discomfort. He let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry, my dear," he breathed into my ear, sending shivers running down my spine that had nothing to do with the crisp fall air. "You won't actually have to _say_ anything. Just stand there, smile at the camera, and look pretty. It'll be over in no time."

Somehow, his sincerity terrified me.

I stood rigid as a boulder as the man behind the machine began the silent countdown that meant we would soon be visible to the thousands of people that had gathered for Ethelberd's announcement. Again the horrible thought from earlier crossed my mind, and I glanced around to make sure there were no deadly weapons in sight. I noticed with a shudder the jagged-edged sword hanging from Aiden's belt, and for a brief moment I had an image in my head too gruesome to describe.

And then Ethelberd spoke.


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks to anyone who's reading this story, hope I haven't kept you in suspense for too long! I'm switching things up a bit and just giving you Felicity's POV in this chapter, then next chapter will probably be just Claire's, and then it'll be back to normal by chapter 9 :) Feedback is mucho appreciated! Also, just a heads up- this chapter gets a tad... intense, haha. Don't worry, nothing really bad is going to happen to Felicity. Pinky promise. ;)  
><strong>

**-Butterfly**

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><p>"Good morning, everyone!"<p>

The voice split through my eardrums, shattering the first peaceful sleep I could remember having in a while. I moaned and tried to roll over to block out the noise, but found that my arms were constrained by something that made a clinking sound when I moved.

I could do nothing but lie there as the voice resounded all around me, speaking as though to a large crowd of people. "I have gathered you all together today so I can tell you some very exciting news. See this lovely young woman beside me?"

My eyelids flew open as the familiarity of the words being spoken crashed down on me.

"Say hello, Felicity," Emperor Ethelberd said encouragingly.

The sound of my soft, trembling voice echoed in my ears. "H-hello."

Light-hearted laughter coated in ice. "Don't be shy, my dear! These are your future people you're speaking to!"

The crowd let out a unified gasp as I listened in agony to the rest of Ethelberd's announcement being replayed on the television screen at the foot of my bed. I saw the terrified realization dawn on my face as the emperor grabbed my hand and raised it high above our heads with exaggerated enthusiasm.

"You heard me correctly, ladies and gentlemen. In exactly one week from now, Felicity here will be your new queen!"

Our audience erupted into the loudest applause I had ever heard in my life as I stood there, frozen in that moment, caught in the tangled folds of understanding and denial. I knew I was supposed to play along, act like I had known this wonderful news from the beginning. I knew that my life and possibly the fate of my village rested on my ability to play along, to appear just as delighted by this announcement as everyone else was.

Instead, I watched myself drop.

The emperor was quick to catch my limp body before it hit the ground, but for one brief second I could see in his eyes that this had taken him by surprise. He immediately composed himself and stood to address his shocked audience as Aiden stepped forward to remove the burden of my failure from his hands.

"Well," Ethelberd said, chuckling darkly, "it seems my fiancé got a little too excited."

The screen faded to blackness.

* * *

><p><em>Your new queen<em>.

When I first heard those words, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of my bones, like the sky above had caved in and buried me in its starry rubble. I couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't do anything but stand and stare and regret my disobedience to my father.

Hearing them for the twenty-seventh time wasn't any less mortifying.

The television in front of me had replayed the scene on the palace balcony over and over again for the past two hours. Seeing as my limbs were chained to the bedposts, I was helpless to do anything but watch it and hope each time it began that Ethelberd's announcement would be different. That maybe I had misheard, maybe I had misunderstood the meaning behind his words.

But every time, the words _your new queen_ made me realize that there was no other interpretation. There was no way to twist the devastating truth.

Ethelberd planned to marry me.

Once reality had sunk its teeth into my skull, it all made perfect sense. The Sechs Empire had been trying to gain control of Kardia long before my father was mayor, and for years Ethelberd himself had tried to bargain with him, offering him more gold than any weaker-minded man could have turned down.

But Godwin knew Ethelberd's wicked ways, and he knew what he was truly after: power. He wanted dominion of the entire continent of Adonea, starting with the small village outside the border. _Conquer one, conquer all. _So he refused.

Although Ethelberd had all the equipment and manpower necessary for a full-scale invasion, he hesitated to do so. He knew that Kardia had good relations with its neighbors, and that if he so much as laid a finger on our land without my father's permission, the surrounding villages would immediately rally to our defense.

And so he bided his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

It came in the form of a rebellious daughter.

Once Ethelberd had me in his clutches, he knew he had my father as well. Godwin's only child, the daughter he cherished above all else, was the one thing he wasn't willing to bargain. All Ethelberd had to do was threaten my life and my father would surrender the town in a heartbeat.

But of course, why not go about it the diplomatic way? If I were Ethelberd's wife, then it would appear that I had made the choice myself. I wasn't a hostage, I was a queen. This wasn't a conquest, oh no.

It was a forced alliance.

* * *

><p><em>You heard me correctly, ladies and gentlemen. In exactly one week from now, Felicity here will be your new queen!<em>

Fifty-two times and counting.

I wasn't sure what Ethelberd's intentions were in making me relive the moment in this way. Surely it was a form of torture, but to what end? To make sure the message seeped into my mind and washed away any thought of escape? Was he trying to break me?

I laughed softly despite myself. _Silly man. I'm already broken._

On eve of my fifth birthday, I was out playing in the forest by my house, chasing after wood sprites and picking up pebbles to add to my growing collection. Suddenly my tiny body was racked by a coughing fit so severe it caused the maid next door to come running in alarm. She took me inside to my father, who immediately sent me to bed and called Doctor Edward to come have a look at me.

The doctor couldn't find anything visibly wrong with me, so he assured my father it was merely a passing illness and would eventually go away on its own.

I was bedridden for the next three months.

Again and again my frantic father called on Edward to come see me, certain there must have been something that he missed the first time around. Again and again he assured us there was nothing that could be done for me, that I would simply have to wait to heal on my own.

I waited for thirteen years.

Of course, I wasn't bedridden the entire time. I eventually gained enough strength in my limbs to stand, walk, and eventually run again. However, I was easily exhausted and prone to fainting spells, and I often fell asleep before the sun even had time to set.

As a child, this didn't affect me too much. I didn't get along with the other children my age that well and preferred to keep to myself. As I got older, however, I longed to work and earn my keep. I began searching for jobs, but it seemed no one was willing to hire a girl who couldn't stay on her feet for more than a couple hours before needing to rest. It seemed as though I would forever be under my father's care.

Eventually an old friend of the family named Neumann took pity on me and allowed me to help him out in his shop for a few hours each day. At first I was satisfied with the work I did and the meager wages I received. However, as I watched the people around me live normal, healthy lives, I couldn't help but feel that I was missing out on something.

Besides the never-ending tension with the Sechs, my chronic weakness was part of the reason my father never allowed me outside the village borders- he was afraid that if I fell and hurt myself, I wouldn't have enough strength to get back home. For years I obeyed him without question. Of course he was only trying to protect me. Of course he had my best interests at heart.

_Of course I would remain in Kardia for the rest of my existence._

It was in the months preceding my eighteenth birthday that I began to experience an irrepressible feeling of restlessness. Some of the village girls were already speaking of marriage and travel and alcohol, and there was I, nearly an adult and still heeding my father's commands like a child. By defying him, I was defying my illness as well. _You have no control over me. I can do whatever I want and you have no say in it._

And so I freed myself from my shackles at home... and strolled right into Ethelberd's trap.

The thing that I still couldn't figure out was how Ethelberd had known about my illness and how Aiden and Lynette had somehow known that I would be in the forest that day. It had taken eighteen years for me to work up the courage to step outside the boundaries set by my father; it couldn't have been pure coincidence that they were there the same day as I… could it? No, they had to have had an inside source. A spy.

_A spy in Kardia. _The thought made me shiver.

But who was it?

"You heard me correctly, ladies and gentlemen. In exactly one week from now, Felicity here will be your new queen!"

Applause. Deceit. Betrayal.

* * *

><p>It was roughly six hours later when Ethelberd's triumphant announcement rang in my ears for the last time.<p>

This time, when the screen faded to black, it was replaced by an image that made me jolt upwards in shock.

"_Daddy?"_ I croaked. My throat was parched with thirst. I struggled against the chains binding my wrists to the bedposts, finally managing to get myself into a sitting position so I could better see the television and make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me.

Sure enough, there he was. I could tell by the bookshelves in the background that he was in his study, the map of Adonea partly concealed by his thick yellow-gray hair. I nearly burst into tears at the very sight of him. His face was pale as sheepskin and skinnier than I remembered it, and there were smoke-colored patches beneath his eyes that spoke of sleepless nights. I had known that my disappearance would devastate him, but I hadn't imagined the physical effects it would have.

When he opened his mouth to speak and instead began sobbing, I swore I felt my heart tear in two.

"Felicity. Oh, my darling Felicity. My baby girl. I'm so sorry," he choked through his tears. The anguish in his voice was unbearable.

"Daddy, I'm okay Daddy. I'm right here. It's okay," I tried to assure him as tears streamed down my own face. I pulled harder against my restraints, desperate to be close to him. "Everything's going to be fine."

He sighed mournfully and looked at me through glassy eyes. "I've let you down. I spent my whole life trying to protect you, and I've failed. I'm so sorry."

I shook my head vehemently. I would not let him believe this was his fault. _"No!_ Don't blame yourself! It was me, Daddy, it was me. I left. I shouldn't have. _I'm_ the one who's sorry. I should have listened to you. I'm a terrible daughter."

"No, Felicity," my father said softly, reaching out his hand as though trying to caress my cheek. I pulled on the chains until I could feel them cutting into my wrists, yet I couldn't bring myself any closer to my father. I screamed in frustration.

"Shhh. It's alright, my darling, it's alright." It was now my father's turn to comfort me as I sobbed aloud, past the point of trying to stay strong for him. I couldn't even stay strong for myself.

"Listen to me," he said, and now his tone was serious, commanding almost. I looked up, hiccuping, and his eyes bore into mine with such intensity that I nearly shrank back in fear.

"I know this isn't what either of us want, but we haven't got a choice. I can't lose you and your mother, too." His voice broke, and he took a deep, shuddering breath before he continued. "Felicity, I order you to marry Ethelberd. It's the only way he'll spare Kardia, and more importantly, your life."

I nodded as I stifled back a sob. Disobeying my father had gotten me into this mess, and I was determined never to do it again.

Suddenly the screen went dark and the bedroom swung open. I screamed and scrambled backwards into the mass of pillows behind me as Emperor Ethelberd's face contorted with sick laughter.

"Do you feel better about our marriage now that you have _Daddy's_ permission?" he said tauntingly from the doorway, and I knew that somehow he had been listening in on our conversation.

For some reason this knowledge filled me with rage. Had I not been tied down, I probably would have lunged for his throat. How _dare_ he. How _dare_ he steal me away from my home and family. How _dare _he use me in his plan for world conquest like a queen in a chess game. How _dare _he cause my father such worry and heartbreak over my condition.

_My father._ It suddenly occurred to me that Daddy didn't own a camera or television or any other means of contacting me the way he just had. Did that mean...

I gasped as understanding came over my mind like a disease, and Ethelberd smiled as though already anticipating the questions forming on my lips.

"How did... but he couldn't have... where... what... _is he hurt?" _If one of the emperor's men had so much as grazed my father's body with his fingertips, I swore that once I became queen I would do everything in my power to have him beheaded.

If that punishment even still existed.

There was a tense moment of silence before Ethelberd slowly shook his head, and I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief. Suddenly remembering Wesley's warning and my father's command, I made a mental note to alter my demeanor in the emperor's presence. The fate of Kardia could possibly depend on it.

"Your Majesty," I said carefully, sitting up so I could meet his gaze, "if it's alright with you, I'd like to know what your men were doing in my father's home?"

Ethelberd waited a long moment before speaking, and at first I was afraid that he was angry with me for asking. "I sent Aiden and a few of my other soldiers there to do some... negotiating, if you will."

_Negotiating._ As in, give me your village or I kill your daughter. Who, by the way, is about to become my wife. No wonder Daddy had looked so stricken on the television.

I suddenly realized that Emperor Ethelberd was approaching my bed with a strange look in his eyes, kind of like the one Emmett gave any female that walked into his bar after he had had one too many drinks himself. I let out an involuntary whimper and shrunk further into the pillows.

But before he could come any closer, a tall figure appeared in the doorway behind him and cleared its throat. "Excuse me, Your Majesty."

I could have sworn I heard Ethelberd growl as he turned around. "Yes, Marlin?"

"I sincerely apologize for the interruption sir, but we've just brought the new captive in from Mineral Town. I thought you might like to have a look at her."

I heard a faint whistle as the emperor breathed out through his nostrils. "Tell Camus I'll be a few minutes."

_Camus? _"Yes, sir," the man said, and he glanced at me in a way I could only interpret as sympathetic before quickly closing the door.

_Camus. _I knew a Camus. He was Doctor Edward's son, the one who ran the farm shop to the south of my father's mansion and occasionally did construction work for the other villagers. We never really spoke as he had always seemed the silent, moody type, and the only information I knew about him was that he and his father were not on good terms. Neumann told me the other day that Camus had recently left Kardia on some kind of business trip without even saying goodbye to him.

_What a coincidence that a soldier with the same name just returned to the Sechs from a... "business" trip of his own._

I hardly had time to dwell on this thought, however, as I noticed that Ethelberd was even closer to the bed than he had been before. My heart began to pound as it suddenly occurred to me to wonder why I had been chained here in the first place.

Two years ago, Lady Ann was almost raped by a man staying in her inn. The stranger had cornered her in his bedroom when she went in to check on him and threatened to hurt her daughter Tori, who was bound in the corner of the room, if she didn't comply with his demands. Thankfully, she had only just begun taking her clothes off when Zavier and Lukas smashed through the door of the room and tried to tackle him. The man managed to escape and wasn't caught until he was found hiding in the forest two days later.

During those two days, my father locked every single door and window in our house and insisted on sleeping next to my bed at night. He told me afterwards that, besides my life of course, my innocence was the most important thing I had to protect.

"Don't ever sleep with a man you don't love, Felicity," he had told me. "To share that secret with someone who doesn't respect it will be the biggest regret of your life."

And now Emperor Ethelberd was hovering over the bed, eying my body like a hawk about to devour its prey. I knew there was no way I'd be able to physically stop him, but there had to be a vein of compassion somewhere in his cruel body. My life was already gone; the least I could do was try to preserve my innocence.

"Please, Your Majesty," I whispered, my eyes filling with tears. My voice seemed to startle him from his thoughts, and he whipped his head around to gaze at my face.

"Please, Ethelberd... don't do this now. It's tradition that Kardians wait until after the marriage ceremony. I… it's important to me," I choked. A tear rolled down my left cheek for emphasis.

Ethelberd stared at me for a long time, his mouth twitching and his fingers flexing at his sides. The ray of hope within me grew dimmer and dimmer as time went on. I could feel the heat of lust and frustration emanating from his body, pressing down on my chest like fiery coals, and all I could do was pray to the Goddess that he would find enough mercy in his heart to spare my innocence this one time.

After what felt like hours, Ethelberd heaved an impatient sigh and reluctantly backed away from my bed and towards the door.

"Fine, fine. If you feel that strongly about it, then so be it. Besides," he said, winking as he opened the door to leave, "I only have to wait a week and then you're mine for eternity."

I waited, trembling, until he closed the door behind him, then leaned over the side of the bed and retched until there was nothing left inside of me but relief.

Yet for some reason, I still felt ill.


End file.
